Americans with diabetes travel to Canada to get affordable insulin

[Hamartia Antidote]

USA is full of selfish people that is why they have the system that they do.

28.5 million Americans have no health insurance and they think that is ok!

I once saw a documentary where an American man lost his finger in an accident and could not afford the 4,000 or so US dollars to have it sewn back on.

The situation is actually the opposite of what most people think. People who are poor get FREE medical care. The absolute best hospitals are filled with patients who are poor (with expenses paid by the government). The people with insurance are actually discouraged from going to these hospitals because the cost is above average.

So being poor with no insurance in the US is much better than being middle class with health insurance.

If you aren’t poor then you shouldn’t be crying about $4000. The people spending the hours putting your finger back on have to eat too.

In a country like France that money would have been deducted from your paycheck every week even if you never went to the hospital once. In the US you are expected to put that money into some healthcare emergency fund and not spend it on a new SUV. The guy complaining about the $4000 was just an idiot.

Many people have high-deductible plans. This means instead of having a good chunk of your paycheck go towards health insurance (even if you don’t use it) you get to keep it in your pocket with the understanding that if there was ever an emergency you’d end up paying it back.

If you are young and healthy you can save a ton of money.

 

[Vergennes]

you communist. Ah ye French think they are better than those who have to pay arm and a leg for even stepping into a doctors surgery? Kicked to the kerb if their insurance is not accepted! Ah Damn you.

yea its this documentary.

 

[Path-Finder]

View attachment 591803

no need to cook methamphetamine for cancer treatment. No Breaking Bad.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

View attachment 591803

Maybe France is somehow an exception in Europe
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timwor...n-health-care-system-not-better/#65858ac9620c

Breaking Bad Would Be Worse In A European Health Care System, Not Better

"An Internet meme imagined if Breaking Bad were set in Canada, which has socialized medicine. The Canuck Breaking Bad wouldn’t last long, it turns out.

“You have cancer. Treatment starts next week,” says the doctor in the first frame.
There’s only one other panel.

“The End."

"That's a bit fanciful I'm afraid. The one thing that socialised medical systems are not very good at is being responsive"
...
"it's not unusual to find people being asked to wait 8 or 12 weeks before a course of treatment does start. And there are certainly cases where the delay in treatment has led a cancer to move from being treatable to being terminal.”

...

"Eventually, health costs do become an issue when Skyler pressures Walter to undergo treatment after all. But it’s not because his HMO won’t pay. It’s because Skyler finds an oncologist who is not just one of the best in Albuquerque, but one of the top 10 oncologists in the nation. It turns out this super-doctor with his fancy cancer treatment is not covered by the HMO, and the out-of-pocket price is $90,000."

....

The whole premise of "Breaking Bad" has been misinterpreted. It has nothing to do with the US Medical System letting him down. He is looking for a cure using experimental procedures which are simply not covered by the government or health insurance.

 

[ziaulislam]

It ain’t that bad compared to yours...
https://spectator.us/american-healthcare-and-the-nhs/
American Healthcare versus the British system

“Sweeping generalizations regarding the nature of American health insurance are so popular because the reality is so complicated. It would only be misleading to say that the country has 50 entirely different healthcare systems (one for every state) because that would be an understatement

...Whereas Britain’s NHS funds medical services free-at-the-point-of-use for all regardless of income, America’s provision of free publicly-financed healthcare is concentrated on specific categories of poor, elderly, and disabled citizens.

...The consequence of this difference of approaches is that routine healthcare services in Britain are cheap for all, but that the extraordinarily expensive medical procedures needed by the very ill are often subject to rationing; whereas Americans who do not qualify for public assistance must pay for their own healthcare (usually through insurance) or rely on publicly-subsidized charity care

...To some extent, this extra money allows Americans from across the income distribution to enjoy better access to medical specialists, high-tech surgery, and cutting-edge drug therapies. As a result, mortality rates following comparable events in the U.S. are often a fraction of what they are in the U.K

..While the NHS in England and Wales provides care through 200 hospitals, America’s public Medicare program entitles its enrollees to receive care at their choice of 4,700 hospitals – around 4 times as many per capita.

——————-

So basically in the US getting a doctor’s appointment is easy and having an operation is as simple as scheduling one in the numerous hospitals.

If you have insurance medical expenses are not much of an issue. Plus some insurance companies have cheap high-deductible plans...for people who are healthy. They cover 100% of the medical costs of routine visits. If you need to do something more than routine they make you pay out of your pocket for it until you hit the deductible (maybe $4000 or something) before they will start covering 100%.

basically insurance is a mafia in USA
if you dont have insurance you will billed unrealistic money, for example for cough medicine you will be billed 1000 dollars but if you have insurance you will be billed either 10$ or 5$..in former case isnruance will pay nothing and in later case it will pay half

thats how insurance earn s billion in profits

why do they bill so high, well most people will not pay hospital bills, so hospitals hope it will get something out of it

so in patient care in USA is great..if you dont have penny got to the hospital they will have to admit you if you are sick..

 

[KAL-EL]

I don’t like the fact that some people have to choose between putting food on the table or their medicine

 

[Vergennes]

Maybe France is somehow an exception in Europe
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timwor...n-health-care-system-not-better/#65858ac9620c

Breaking Bad Would Be Worse In A European Health Care System, Not Better

"An Internet meme imagined if Breaking Bad were set in Canada, which has socialized medicine. The Canuck Breaking Bad wouldn’t last long, it turns out.

“You have cancer. Treatment starts next week,” says the doctor in the first frame.
There’s only one other panel.

“The End."

"That's a bit fanciful I'm afraid. The one thing that socialised medical systems are not very good at is being responsive"
...
"it's not unusual to find people being asked to wait 8 or 12 weeks before a course of treatment does start. And there are certainly cases where the delay in treatment has led a cancer to move from being treatable to being terminal.”

...

"Eventually, health costs do become an issue when Skyler pressures Walter to undergo treatment after all. But it’s not because his HMO won’t pay. It’s because Skyler finds an oncologist who is not just one of the best in Albuquerque, but one of the top 10 oncologists in the nation. It turns out this super-doctor with his fancy cancer treatment is not covered by the HMO, and the out-of-pocket price is $90,000."

....

The whole premise of "Breaking Bad" has been misinterpreted. It has nothing to do with the US Medical System letting him down. He is looking for a cure using experimental procedures which are simply not covered by the government or health insurance.

Well in France,unlike in the UK,the French Social Security does cover 100% of all innovative cancer treatments once they have proven their effectiveness,no matter how much they cost. Social Security spendings on cancer treatments,reimbursements etc. accounted for €17,4 billion.

Talking about the UK,if you would compare it to France,over here it's not entirely "free". (Although funded by taxpayers in both countries,so not really free). In France healthcare is a mix of public and private services.

As usual,people with low income have access to free healthcare. 100% of medical spendings related to a number of long term diseases (like cancer,diabete and others) are fully covered by the Social Security,for everyone,no matter the income.

For all other people and other healthcare costs,the social security covers between 70-75% of the spendings. This rate however is much higher (something like 90% or more) in Alsace-Moselle because they have inherited the generous German insurance system in place when those territories were occupied by Germany from 1871 to 1918. The system was kept in place in those territories,with calls to widespread it to the rest of the country...

Almost every French people has a top-up health insurance (called Mutuelle) that will cover some or all the remaining percentage not reimbursed by the state. (depending on the one you chose). They are provided by non profit organizations and are generally well affordable. (the market is very competitive here,there are 300 to 400 of them.)

There was a problem though regarding dental care,glasses and hearing aids. They are very badly reimbursed by the state and the mutuelles and so many people gave up these items because they were too expensive.

However,a reform voted by the Macron government that will come into effect from the 1st of january 2020 will see all insured people accessing a "100% health" basket,100% covered by the social security and top-up insurances. It means people will have the access to a wide range of glasses,dental prostheses and hearing aids without paying a penny.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Well in France,unlike in the UK,the French Social Security does cover 100% of all innovative cancer treatments once they have proven their effectiveness,no matter how much they cost.

Well they do that here too but the procedure in Breaking Bad wasn't proven...he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and with chemo maybe he could live a few more years. Plus the money he was generating was mostly being put as a fund for his family to support themselves when he was gone not to pay for the treatment.

 

[Musalman]

I'm a diabetic, when I went to US, I took insulin for my whole trip. In Pakistan insulin of same brand was 10% of the US cost and believe me it's pretty expensive in Pakistan. I spend around 50K a month on my medicines and insulin